On the day before his team is expected to eliminate 25% of its front-office positions, Dodger owner Peter O'Malley went to Milwaukee on Tuesday to discuss the state of the game with baseball's acting commissioner, Bud Selig. O'Malley could not be reached for comment, and Selig said only that the meeting was "extremely cordial" and included a thorough discussion of where the industry is as it copes with a players' strike that began on Aug.

Now that corporate raiders Peter O'Malley and Fred Claire have gone on a shopping spree and outfitted their team with top-of-the-line, imported merchandise, the Dodgers should sell off their minor league franchises. Why pay for production they'll never use anyway? Since Dodger management has little confidence in their own product, and since their marketing plan is to go outside and raid competition, they should take money from the close-out sale and invest it in CDs. Then late next year, when 1992 models are introduced, Claire can take his fat checkbook and again buy the latest in pitchers, outfielders, etc. Perhaps Claire should consider moving unused merchandise such as Chris Gwynn and Jose Gonzalez, who are just gathering dust while taking up valuable shelf space.

Peter O'Malley is offering himself as the brave heart who will lead the crusade to bring professional football back to Los Angeles. Let's let O'Malley know that we are behind him, absolutely, 100%. I can think of at least five reasons the Dodger Stadium caretaker should run our next NFL franchise: 1. Location. 2. Location. 3. Location. 4. O'Malley would be that rare NFL owner who never makes a fool of himself. 5. This could mean far more opportunities for Japanese football stars.

National League President Bill White said in Atlanta that baseball's executive committee conferred by phone for more than an hour Wednesday to "refine the procedure" by which a $95-million offer by the San Francisco-based group attempting to keep the San Francisco Giants in the Bay Area will be weighed against the $115-million offer by the Tampa-St. Petersburg group.

Tom Candiotti has been told that he no longer will pitch regular batting practice. "Because they want to give the hitters a chance, I will only face two hitters, a righty and a lefty, in simulated games," said Candiotti, who pitched his first simulated game Friday. "I guess I can't blame them." Such games also give him a chance to work with Mike Scioscia on catching a knuckleball under game conditions. "It's not easy," Scioscia said. "It's going to take a little working together.

The Dodgers announced Thursday that they had reached an agreement in principle to sell the team and its properties to Rupert Murdoch and the Fox Group. The development had been expected. Dodger owner Peter O'Malley and the Fox Group have been in serious negotiations since receiving permission from baseball on July 30. However, Thursday's development was significant because it was the first official announcement that a deal was in place.

Dodger owner Peter O'Malley reaffirmed his interest in returning professional football to Los Angeles on Tuesday with the announcement that he has commissioned a feasibility study for building a football stadium and acquiring an NFL expansion team. "It's the next logical step," said Nelson Rising, president and chief executive officer of Catellus Development Corporation, which will conduct the study. "The Dodger locationappears to be ideal for a new stadium.

The story of Los Angeles' search for a new National Football League team starts in the hills above Chinatown, a community that, by coincidence, provided the title of the ultimate movie about L.A. political intrigue. Like the film "Chinatown," this story is also about land.

Former Dodgers owner Peter O'Malley, who made an unsuccessful bid to buy back the franchise his family ran for nearly half a century, said Wednesday he was delighted that a group fronted by Lakers legend Magic Johnson would become the new owner of the Dodgers. "I've always said I want it in the right hands," O'Malley said. "It doesn't have to be my hands. " O'Malley had publicly faulted outgoing owner Frank McCourt for tarnishing the Dodgers' name in the community. "What I really like about Magic's involvement is that Magic is so popular here in Los Angeles," O'Malley said.

The Dodgers' request to continue what owner Peter O'Malley called "substantive and meaningful negotiations" leading to the sale of the franchise to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., which owns the Fox TV network, was neither approved nor rejected by baseball's ownership committee in Chicago on Tuesday, but the delay is strictly procedural.